Operating Systems I2003-04

Aims

The overall aim of this course is to provide a general understanding
of how a computer works. This includes aspects of the underlying
hardware as well as the structure and key functions of the operating
system. Case studies will be used to illustrate and reinforce
fundamental concepts.

Lectures

The course comprises 12 lectures given T/T/S at 12:00 in the Cockroft
Lecture theatre, starting Thursday 22nd April. The course divides into
three main parts as follows:

Supervisions and Revision

The past exam
questions are also online and are useful for exam practice, or for
assigning supervision work. Note that the course was substantially
revised in 1998/99, and so many questions prior to to 1999 are not
relevant; some exceptions are 1998 P1Q4
and 1998 P1Q11.
There is also a set of additional questions for the first part of
the course (computer organisation) since this is not well represented
in the past exam questions. These were prepared by Dr Tim Harris in
2002, but remain valid. They are available in
ps.gz and pdf
formats.

Supervisors: note that a section of the first part of the course
includes additional material not for examination and not covered in
lectures. However you may wish to go over this with interested students.

Recommended books

There are a large number of books covering the various topics in this course;
a selection are listed below. One caveat regarding operating systems texts;
many details of vitual memory management and process synchronization
issues are not relevant to this course, being topics covered in subsequent
lecture series.